Che a new man the best documentary at the Montreal Film Festival

"My cinema seeks for a wish to change things; that explains having made this film." These were the words of Tristán Bauer, letting his feelings show to the public attending the special screening of Che, un hombre Nuevo (Che, a new man) at the Yara Movie Theater, within the context of the Festival of the New Latin American Cinema held in Havana in December, 2009.

Now, the ICAIC is getting ready to premiere at the country’s main movie theaters, starting from Thursday, October 7, the documentary that the Argentinean filmmaker dedicated to his fellow countryman Ernesto Guevara.

After twelve years of searches and finds, Bauer was able to finally finish this film last year, co-produced by the ICAIC, the Center for Studies on Che Guevara, the National Institute for Cinema and Audiovisuals of Argentina, and the San Martín National University, as well as by the public body Televisión Española and Golem Distributions, of the Iberian nation.

Speaking about the documentary, Bauer said: "I know that summarizing the idea in the documentary’s 130 minutes was a challenge, but I had to try to convey the concept of a man that studies, carries out deep theoretical reflections and at the same time devotes himself to action and practices what he preaches."

An indicator of the effectiveness of Bauer’s proposal could be the recent winning of the prize for Best Documentary at the Montreal Film Festival, an acknowledgment given by the public.

The film occupies a very special place within the production of the Argentinean filmmaker, but at the same time it’s consistent with an aesthetic approach and a taking of sides. At some point, Bauer defined himself:

"I’m interested in a cinema linked to memory; this has to do with a search for identity, which, all in all, means construction. I’m the sort of person who thinks that we can’t make progress as individuals or as a society if we’re not capable of evaluating our past, not with the aim of noticing nostalgia or gloating over a wound; but of proposing a look at the past, with the objective of moving towards the future."

For him, being born in 1959 was a significant circumstance: "It’s the year of the triumph of the Cuban Revolution, that is, of the beginning of a different time in my country and in Latin America." After graduating in 1982 from the Experimental Center of the National Cinematography Institute, he worked as a cameraman in the service of Chilean Miguel Littin and US producer Estela Bravo.

In terms of documentaries, he has made important productions, like Cortázar (1994) and Evita, la tumba sin paz (1997), which set a record in Argentinean TV viewing figures.

With his feature film Iluminados por el fuego (2005), on the Falklands war, he won the Goya Prize in Best Foreign Film in Spanish Language in 2006, the Special Prize of the Jury of the

San Sebastián Festival, the Prize for Best Fiction Film of the Tribeca Film Festival of New

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